Can anyone break the monopoly of “The Fantastic Four”?
I am back in the blessed land of India after a year, and as I switch on ESPN my favorite football “panelâ€? show called Football Focus comes on, with Paul Masfield and that unkown Porto player Shebby Singh leading the debate being moderated by John Dykes (If you don’t know who these people are, well, it doesn’t really matter!). One of the subjects for debate was – Can the Premiership see a change in the Fab 4? The panelists had their own theories, here is mine.
For years now, the top four in the premiership have been more or less unchallenged and almost decided on before the season started. In case you are wondering, these four are (alphabetically) Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United.
The last two years have seen two new faces fight for fourth spot in Everton and Tottenham. The former had a disastrous campaign last year, and Tottenham haven’t started this season much too well finding themselves in the bottom half of the table. But can an Everton or a Tottenham, or even current leaders Portsmouth challenge to break the regime on the top of the table? Well that’s a no-brainer really - Obviously not! And it’s time to state the obvious –
Old school vs. New Money
All the Randy Lerner’s and Alexandre Gaydamak’s of the world cannot buy the best in the business. Simply because the best decide who they go to, and someone like a Kaka or a Rooney will not chose a club that does not come consistently in the top 3 of the Premier League. It is all fine and well to argue the case of Tevez and Mascherano going to West Ham, a club recently promoted, but the coup the Hammers pulled off was aided by the reluctance of the top 4 to sign these players. It is widely known that Masch was offered to United once if not twice before he went to Upton Park.
Old blood vs. New Blood
Take Portsmouth as an example. Some of their signings of the season are former big guns of the Premiership – Kanu, Campbell and David James, all three starters for Pompey. I trust Harry Redknapp to invest in youngsters later on, but all his summer signings have been for the now. Portsmouth has the players and a manager that can help them defeat mid table opponents and brush aside the relegation threatened, and provide an upset or two against the Fab 4. But for a club like Portsmouth to have a youth academy that can spurn out one great player after another is asking for too much. Again, West Ham has a great academy, but they were also playing in the Championship 2 years ago.
If a club decides to invest in the future by buying mostly youngsters they know they won’t finish few positions below where they are expected to because the youngsters, as hungry as they are for trophies and results, take time to gel with each other and lack the experience that will get them through those “It’s 2-2, and we are in the final minute of Extra Time – It’s a ‘Young XI’ corner� and come out with a winner.
And when you invest in Old Blood, you risk the possibility of “6th this season, relegated next season�
End of season pressure and consistency.
March, April and May in the Premiership means one thing. It’s time to deliver, and secure the best spot by getting maximum points in the remaining few games.
And it’s at the end of the stretch where top teams are at their best, the relegation threatened pull a string of surprises in their final attempt to stay afloat and when mid table teams begin to feel the heat and tend to crumble. If a team is unfailing, year after year in featuring in the 5th or 6th spot, it has half a chance to breaking into the Fab 4 sometime in the future. Invariably, some teams occupying spots 5th to 10th end up in the bottom half of the table. Everton, Aston Villa, Middlesbrough, Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspurs, Manchester City, Blackburn Rovers, Charlton Athletic are consistent mid-table teams. But their positions in the middle of the table change season by season.
Brand Names outside of England
Apart from the Fab 4, most premiership clubs have a very small fan following (Ed: you’re sooooo going to get burned on this one). This hurts the smaller clubs when foreign players who have grown up hearing of Manchester United, Liverpool and other such teams with great tradition and history, have dreams of playing for these clubs and not for a Charlton Athletic or an Everton. This may change with marketing of the Premiership the world over, but it is still hard to form loyalties with clubs that are not the best when you are in a different country.
Top clubs are just that damn good
Clubs that boast of names like Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard, William Gallas and Petr Cech are too high quality to beat on a regular basis. That is why they constantly achieve a top 4 finish, buy the best players, have an academy that churns out one good player after another, deliver when it matters, win trophies, build names outside their own country and afford to spend for the future, not being that bothered about the present because they know their positions are unthreatened.
It will be something else to see the domination of the top 4 end.
Viva la Futbol!
p.s. I just realised that my earlier sign off “Until then, bring in the beers” was freakishly similar to an American Sports Writer called Nick Webster, so I decided to change it before being randomly charged with plagiarism. Thoughts on the new one (corny to mind fkn blowing, will all be appreciated).
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Discussion - 13 Responses
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“Apart from the Fab 4, most premiership clubs have a very small fan following”
Fab 4 Minus Chelsea, i.e. who arne’t even the biggest club in London as far as fan following is concerned.
I think most sigs suck ass
Do you know what “monopoly” means?
I edited that headline, and yes, I do know what ‘monopoly’ means. Do you know what nitpicking and ‘missing the point’ means?
Still, fair’s fair. Will take care of semantics in the future. I hope you got the point despite the mistake.
Shebby Singh, a Porto player? Haha! More like a Malaysian player who was formerly known as Serbegeth Singh!
Are you seriously suggesting that Everton have no fanbase or history or are you just a wind-up merchant. We average a gate of 38,000, and are the 4th biggest club in England in terms of trophies won. We have also been in the top flight longest on agregate (that means all our years added together Arsenal fans). Ever heard of Dixie Dean (60 goals a season), Gary Lineker, Wayne Rooney, Neville Southall, Brian Labone, Howard Kendall, Peter Reid, Joe Royle or Alex Young?
Football League Record
1888 Founder Member of the Football League. 1930-31 Division 2, 1931-51 Division 1, 1951-54 Division 2, 1954-92 Division 1, 1992-Present FA Premier League.
Division 1 Champions
1890-91, 1914-15, 1927-28, 1931-32, 1938-39, 1962-63, 1969-70, 1984-85, 1986-87.
Runners-Up
1889-90, 1894-95, 1901-02, 1904-05, 1908-09, 1911-12, 1985-86.
FA Cup Winners
1906, 1933, 1966, 1984, 1995.
Runners-Up
1893, 1897, 1907, 1968, 1985, 1986, 1989.
Charity Shield Winners
1928, 1932, 1963, 1970, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1995, Shared 1986.
European Cup-Winners’ Cup Winners
1984-85.
Erm Ahmed - it’s “viva el fútbol”. Football is masculine in Spanish
And whilst I agree with the majority of your points, you have seriously undervalued what Harry Redknapp has done this summer. True, he has brought in some veteran players (james, campbell, kanu, cole). However, a great deal of his summer signings are clearly for the future: Johnson (if the deal is made permanent), Kranjcar (a much-coveted young footballer, consider by many as the greatest player to come out of Croatia since the wonderful Davor Suker - my favourite player ever), Fernandes, Douana, and Portsmouth do have some other good young players on their books : - Taylor, Davis, O’Neil, Lua Lua (perhaps one of the most underrated players in the premiership).
An interesting piece but I think you miss the greatest quality the four teams you mention have in their favour - the psychological advantage over their competitors.
Just look at the way teams set themselves up against Arsenal - 541 formations aimed solely at taking a point from us. Hardly the ambition you need to show to achieve a top 4 finish is it? It’s a similar story when these teams (Villa, Boro, Everton, etc) come to any of the Grove, Old Trafford, Anfield or the Bridge, teams play within themselves and resort to spoiler tactics in order to take home a precious point which may be the difference between that all important 12th place finish as opposed to 13th.
Middlesbrough are probably my favourite team for this, having beaten each of the four at home last season they managed to lose to them all, apart from a goalless draw with ManU, away from home, including that famous 7-0 defeat at Highbury. How does a team go between those two extremes?
The four teams you mention will continue to have an edge over their opposition as long as opposition managers continue to hedge their bets in order secure a point against them.
Having said that, I do think that there will continue to be one or two teams every season who at least challenge the status quo and, over time, with investment and good management, teams may rise to challenge what is becoming a very predictable CL qualifying competition.
Hugo - that’s Arjun writing the piece, not me
You could be right Andy. All I know is, that is what he was advertised as when he signed up with ESPN. Unless I heard something else and mixed up the two sentences and derived that he was a FC Porto plyer.
@ Edward.
Edward, please read what my point was about a clubs’ following outside England. Everton has a huge fan base in England, as does West Ham, as does Pompey as do even Sunderland n Southampton.
But they don’t have such a huge following outside England. The reasons for that I have stated above. Most of your success came before English Football was really marketed outside what we know now as the European Union. And no, I am not just a wind-up merchant.
@ Hugo
I will keep that in mind in the future (viva el fútbol). And what you said about Redknapp I have mentioned in my article. He is the type of guy who will think of both, the present and the future. But I do believe, his major investments or rather “star spendings” have been on the veterans because he wants to ensure there is a present for the future…
oh, and viva el fútbol
“Everton has a huge fan base in England, as does West Ham, as does Pompey as do even Sunderland n Southampton.”
What? This is what you get when people outside of England pontificate about the game inside England. Complete and utter gibberish.
Your point being? They don’t?
liverpool r da best man utd no dat hus da most succesful clun in england all utd fans let me no